Windows Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Microsoft Windows
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Windows skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 10 12
Rank change year-on-year -26 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Windows 2,652 3,399 6,981
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.03% 11.83% 10.17%
As % of the Operating Systems category 70.68% 69.77% 68.32%
Number of salaries quoted 2,074 2,295 5,838
10th Percentile £26,500 £26,250 £24,500
25th Percentile £29,000 £30,000 £27,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £37,500 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% - -6.25%
75th Percentile £47,500 £48,306 £52,500
90th Percentile £62,500 £60,000 £62,500
UK median annual salary £39,000 £40,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -11.11%

All Operating Systems
UK excluding London

Windows falls under the Operating Systems category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring operating system skills in the UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 3,752 4,872 10,218
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.71% 16.95% 14.89%
Number of salaries quoted 2,817 2,961 8,135
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,250 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,500 £31,250 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £40,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -5.88% -5.56%
75th Percentile £60,000 £57,500 £57,500
90th Percentile £74,050 £70,000 £68,750
UK median annual salary £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
% change year-on-year - - -14.29%

Windows
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Windows relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Windows job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Windows
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Windows.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Windows

Windows
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Windows in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 15 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Windows in the UK excluding London

Windows
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Windows within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 15 May 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East -15 685 £37,500 -2.15% 292
North of England -36 662 £35,750 +2.88% 192
Midlands -40 459 £32,500 -11.98% 109
North West -19 357 £37,500 -6.25% 110
South West -19 346 £32,500 -13.33% 141
West Midlands -37 277 £36,000 -2.51% 58
East of England -2 267 £40,000 -5.88% 99
Yorkshire -28 267 £34,000 +6.25% 69
East Midlands -27 181 £32,500 - 51
Scotland +25 127 £32,500 -35.00% 35
Wales -18 74 £40,000 -20.00% 40
North East -37 38 £45,000 +2.27% 16
Northern Ireland -15 25 £31,750 -36.50% 10
Isle of Man +5 6 £45,000 +55.17%
Channel Islands - 1 £100,000 -
Windows
UK

Windows
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 389 (14.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 342 (12.90%) SharePoint
3 52 (1.96%) IIS
4 14 (0.53%) Confluence
5 13 (0.49%) Exchange Server 2013
6 11 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2007
6 11 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2010
7 8 (0.30%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.23%) Apache
8 6 (0.23%) CMS
9 5 (0.19%) WordPress
10 1 (0.038%) Drupal
10 1 (0.038%) FileNet
10 1 (0.038%) nginx
10 1 (0.038%) Tomcat
Applications
1 344 (12.97%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (1.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (0.11%) Photoshop
6 2 (0.075%) AutoCAD
6 2 (0.075%) Sketch
6 2 (0.075%) Weka
7 1 (0.038%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.038%) Blender
7 1 (0.038%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.038%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 15 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (0.23%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
3 5 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.15%) Dynamics GP
4 4 (0.15%) Exchequer
4 4 (0.15%) Line 50
4 4 (0.15%) Markit EDM
4 4 (0.15%) Primavera
5 3 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.075%) Alphatax
6 2 (0.075%) Magento
7 1 (0.038%) Infor CloudSuite
7 1 (0.038%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
7 1 (0.038%) Sage 200
7 1 (0.038%) SAP Business One
7 1 (0.038%) SAP S/4HANA
7 1 (0.038%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 1,442 (54.37%) Microsoft 365
2 876 (33.03%) Azure
3 461 (17.38%) Entra ID
4 225 (8.48%) AWS
5 116 (4.37%) OneDrive
6 77 (2.90%) Google Workspace
7 70 (2.64%) SaaS
8 54 (2.04%) IaaS
9 53 (2.00%) Power Platform
10 46 (1.73%) PaaS
11 40 (1.51%) Azure DevOps
12 39 (1.47%) GCP
12 39 (1.47%) Nutanix
13 28 (1.06%) Azure Sentinel
14 25 (0.94%) PowerApps
15 21 (0.79%) Mimecast
16 18 (0.68%) Power Automate
17 16 (0.60%) GitHub
17 16 (0.60%) Microsoft Copilot
18 15 (0.57%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 575 (21.68%) DNS
2 492 (18.55%) Firewall
3 472 (17.80%) DHCP
4 302 (11.39%) VPN
5 274 (10.33%) WAN
6 261 (9.84%) LAN
7 223 (8.41%) TCP/IP
8 159 (6.00%) VLAN
9 155 (5.84%) Wi-Fi
10 120 (4.52%) VoIP
11 114 (4.30%) Wireless
12 56 (2.11%) Remote Desktop
13 53 (2.00%) Network Security
14 49 (1.85%) SAN
15 39 (1.47%) Internet
16 31 (1.17%) NAS
17 30 (1.13%) Broadband
17 30 (1.13%) SD-WAN
17 30 (1.13%) WLAN
18 23 (0.87%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 148 (5.58%) SQL Server
2 71 (2.68%) Amazon RDS
3 33 (1.24%) PostgreSQL
4 24 (0.90%) MongoDB
5 23 (0.87%) Power BI
6 18 (0.68%) MySQL
7 12 (0.45%) Oracle Database
8 11 (0.41%) NoSQL
9 9 (0.34%) Relational Database
10 7 (0.26%) InfluxDB
11 5 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
11 5 (0.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 5 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 4 (0.15%) Crystal Reports
12 4 (0.15%) Data Warehouse
12 4 (0.15%) FileMaker
13 2 (0.075%) GIS
14 1 (0.038%) InterSystems Cache
14 1 (0.038%) Oracle Exadata
14 1 (0.038%) Redis
Development Applications
1 73 (2.75%) JIRA
2 52 (1.96%) Git
3 38 (1.43%) GitLab
4 18 (0.68%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.34%) Bitbucket
5 9 (0.34%) LabVIEW
5 9 (0.34%) Visual Studio
6 7 (0.26%) Robot Framework
6 7 (0.26%) Selenium
7 5 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 5 (0.19%) TestRail
8 4 (0.15%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.15%) Subversion
9 3 (0.11%) Octopus Deploy
9 3 (0.11%) Ranorex
9 3 (0.11%) Team Foundation Server
10 2 (0.075%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.075%) C++Builder
10 2 (0.075%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.075%) TeamCity
General
1 1,083 (40.84%) Social Skills
2 226 (8.52%) Analytical Skills
3 157 (5.92%) Finance
4 108 (4.07%) Organisational Skills
5 105 (3.96%) Manufacturing
6 90 (3.39%) Retail
7 84 (3.17%) Public Sector
8 68 (2.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 66 (2.49%) Law
10 64 (2.41%) Back Office
11 60 (2.26%) Documentation Skills
12 58 (2.19%) Legal
13 45 (1.70%) Telecoms
14 28 (1.06%) Advertising
15 27 (1.02%) Local Government
16 26 (0.98%) Aerospace
17 20 (0.75%) Electronics
18 16 (0.60%) Influencing Skills
18 16 (0.60%) Marketing
19 13 (0.49%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 852 (32.13%) IT Support
2 593 (22.36%) Support Engineer
3 480 (18.10%) IT Engineer
4 407 (15.35%) IT Support Engineer
5 361 (13.61%) Analyst
6 269 (10.14%) Support Technician
7 239 (9.01%) IT Technician
8 237 (8.94%) Support Analyst
9 235 (8.86%) Senior
10 219 (8.26%) 2nd Line Support
11 218 (8.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 189 (7.13%) IT Support Technician
13 171 (6.45%) IT Analyst
14 135 (5.09%) IT Support Analyst
15 119 (4.49%) 1st Line Support
16 116 (4.37%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 113 (4.26%) Desktop Support
18 100 (3.77%) Systems Engineer
19 94 (3.54%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
20 93 (3.51%) Desktop Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (1.28%) .NET
2 26 (0.98%) Node.js
3 22 (0.83%) HTML
4 19 (0.72%) XMPP
5 16 (0.60%) Regular Expression
6 15 (0.57%) CSS
7 13 (0.49%) JSON
8 12 (0.45%) .NET Framework
8 12 (0.45%) LDAP
8 12 (0.45%) pytest
8 12 (0.45%) React
8 12 (0.45%) Web Services
9 11 (0.41%) YAML
10 10 (0.38%) SAML
10 10 (0.38%) XML
11 9 (0.34%) ASP.NET
11 9 (0.34%) Elastic Stack
12 7 (0.26%) .NET Core
12 7 (0.26%) EDI
12 7 (0.26%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 334 (12.59%) Driving Licence
2 154 (5.81%) Onboarding
3 146 (5.51%) Social Media
4 141 (5.32%) Self-Motivation
5 96 (3.62%) Data Centre
6 80 (3.02%) Hybrid Cloud
7 61 (2.30%) Legacy Systems
8 48 (1.81%) Digital Media
9 47 (1.77%) Management Information System
10 41 (1.55%) Replication
11 38 (1.43%) Public Cloud
12 32 (1.21%) EPoS
13 29 (1.09%) PKI
14 27 (1.02%) Client/Server
14 27 (1.02%) Video Conferencing
15 23 (0.87%) Cloud Native
16 22 (0.83%) Security Posture
17 21 (0.79%) CMDB
18 19 (0.72%) Enterprise Software
19 18 (0.68%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 1,038 (39.14%) Windows Server
2 466 (17.57%) Windows 10
3 429 (16.18%) Linux
4 177 (6.67%) Android
5 172 (6.49%) Mac OS
6 137 (5.17%) Windows Server 2016
7 129 (4.86%) Apple iOS
8 71 (2.68%) Windows Server 2019
9 47 (1.77%) Windows Server 2012
10 42 (1.58%) Unix
11 36 (1.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 27 (1.02%) Ubuntu
13 22 (0.83%) Windows 7
14 19 (0.72%) CentOS
14 19 (0.72%) Windows Server 2008
15 16 (0.60%) VMS
16 9 (0.34%) Windows 8
17 5 (0.19%) Debian
17 5 (0.19%) Solaris
18 4 (0.15%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 795 (29.98%) Problem-Solving
2 721 (27.19%) Customer Service
3 523 (19.72%) ITIL
4 370 (13.95%) Continuous Improvement
5 335 (12.63%) Cybersecurity
6 281 (10.60%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 203 (7.65%) Mentoring
8 200 (7.54%) ITSM
9 198 (7.47%) Service Delivery
10 155 (5.84%) Customer Experience
11 154 (5.81%) Disaster Recovery
12 129 (4.86%) Service Management
13 123 (4.64%) Agile
14 121 (4.56%) Coaching
15 116 (4.37%) Project Delivery
16 114 (4.30%) DevOps
16 114 (4.30%) Patch Management
17 107 (4.03%) Root Cause Analysis
18 105 (3.96%) Asset Management
19 99 (3.73%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 300 (11.31%) PowerShell
2 185 (6.98%) SQL
3 135 (5.09%) Python
4 68 (2.56%) Bash
5 57 (2.15%) C#
6 44 (1.66%) C++
7 30 (1.13%) JavaScript
8 22 (0.83%) Java
9 19 (0.72%) C
10 16 (0.60%) PHP
11 9 (0.34%) Bicep
11 9 (0.34%) MATLAB
12 7 (0.26%) VB
13 6 (0.23%) T-SQL
13 6 (0.23%) VBA
14 5 (0.19%) Shell Script
15 4 (0.15%) Delphi
16 3 (0.11%) GLSL
16 3 (0.11%) Go
16 3 (0.11%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 393 (14.82%) Security Cleared
2 318 (11.99%) Degree
3 254 (9.58%) SC Cleared
4 249 (9.39%) DBS Check
5 152 (5.73%) Microsoft Certification
6 113 (4.26%) DV Cleared
7 76 (2.87%) A+ Certification
8 52 (1.96%) Cisco Certification
9 50 (1.89%) CTC Cleared
10 43 (1.62%) CCNA
11 41 (1.55%) Azure Certification
12 37 (1.40%) Network+ Certification
13 35 (1.32%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 29 (1.09%) BPSS Clearance
14 29 (1.09%) Computer Science Degree
15 28 (1.06%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 24 (0.90%) CompTIA Security+
17 23 (0.87%) ITIL Certification
18 18 (0.68%) HND
19 16 (0.60%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 262 (9.88%) SLA
2 141 (5.32%) Cyber Essentials
3 82 (3.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 71 (2.68%) PCI DSS
5 55 (2.07%) GDPR
6 37 (1.40%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 36 (1.36%) QA
8 23 (0.87%) NIST
9 15 (0.57%) Accessibility
10 9 (0.34%) ISO 9001
11 7 (0.26%) ISO 22301
12 5 (0.19%) GRC
13 4 (0.15%) ISO 14001
13 4 (0.15%) SOC 2
14 3 (0.11%) JSP 440
14 3 (0.11%) NCSC
15 2 (0.075%) Data Quality
15 2 (0.075%) GxP
15 2 (0.075%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 1 (0.038%) WCAG
System Software
1 1,206 (45.48%) Active Directory
2 327 (12.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 304 (11.46%) Hyper-V
4 80 (3.02%) vSphere
5 57 (2.15%) Docker
6 52 (1.96%) VMware ESXi
7 51 (1.92%) Terminal Server
8 33 (1.24%) Virtual Desktop
9 25 (0.94%) BitLocker
10 24 (0.90%) Virtual Machines
10 24 (0.90%) VMware NSX
11 16 (0.60%) Virtual Servers
12 13 (0.49%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 10 (0.38%) Terminal Services
14 8 (0.30%) VMware Workstation
15 6 (0.23%) DFS Replication
16 5 (0.19%) iptables
16 5 (0.19%) KVM
17 4 (0.15%) Firmware
18 3 (0.11%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 336 (12.67%) Microsoft Intune
2 157 (5.92%) SCCM
3 99 (3.73%) Terraform
4 80 (3.02%) Ansible
5 57 (2.15%) Kubernetes
6 43 (1.62%) vCenter Server
7 41 (1.55%) Jamf Pro
8 28 (1.06%) WSUS
9 27 (1.02%) Grafana
10 25 (0.94%) Nessus
11 24 (0.90%) Single Sign-On
12 23 (0.87%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 18 (0.68%) Proxmox
14 17 (0.64%) Autotask
14 17 (0.64%) Nagios
14 17 (0.64%) SCOM
15 16 (0.60%) FortiGate
16 14 (0.53%) Argo
17 13 (0.49%) VxRail
18 12 (0.45%) Puppet
Vendors
1 1,513 (57.05%) Microsoft
2 517 (19.49%) VMware
3 193 (7.28%) Cisco
4 130 (4.90%) Apple
5 127 (4.79%) Veeam
6 110 (4.15%) SolarWinds
7 99 (3.73%) Google
8 95 (3.58%) Splunk
9 92 (3.47%) ServiceNow
10 83 (3.13%) Dell
11 74 (2.79%) Citrix
11 74 (2.79%) Nimble Storage
12 69 (2.60%) HP
13 67 (2.53%) Meraki
14 48 (1.81%) Brocade
14 48 (1.81%) Tanium
15 43 (1.62%) McAfee
16 42 (1.58%) Red Hat
17 37 (1.40%) Sophos
18 33 (1.24%) Oracle